Unfortunately, Martin was kinda more popular in ever OTHER province and territory... It's nice to see a little glimmer, but I think it's also a stretch. After all, he is a native Quebecker. The bounce he did get, then equally, is still disappointing.Door knocking and delivering people to the polls, I was hearing how people still liked Martin.

I think based on raw numbers it was better for Dion in 2008 than Martin in 2006. Of course, besides this victory outside the island of Montreal, the Grits went back to second place in a number of ridings outside the GMR such as Drummond, a riding in the Gaspe, and several whose names escape me at the moment. Not to mention, on the island we were really close to winning back Ahuntsic and Jeanne Le Ber.

Context is just a little bit important I think. The Quebec numbers can be explained first by the Sponsorship Scandal, and then by the collapse of the Conservative vote in Quebec due to Harper gaffes. Polls showed that once the Conservative vote began to fall apart, the Bloc and the Liberals benefited (soft-nationalists went Bloc and federalists went Liberal). The Liberals won 14 seats now in Quebec this election. Jean Chretien won 19 seats in 1993, 29 in 1997, and 36 in 2000 in Quebec. 14 is hardly a success; it is marginally less disastrous. In context, however, I would argue it's extremely disappointing as Martin managed to achieve similar results with the weight of Sponsorship around his neck while Dion needed major mistakes from Harper to accomplish a similar feat.